The Tea Boy And The Eye
by Teriel
Summary: Just an ordinary day for Ianto Jones. Tidying up the hub, making the coffee, ensuring all equipments are in place and the list goes on and on. You might as well call him a glorified butler. Ianto Jones never expected to stand out, always blending in and known as the silent but efficient helper. All this was moot when the eye called to him. Ianto's life will never be the same.
1. Chapter 1

Ianto Jones was not just a tea boy, he was more than that, or so he kept telling himself as he balanced Owen's coffee mug on the tray. The four cups clinking against each other as he walked swiftly down to everyone's stations. Gwen smiled and patted his arm as he gave her the coffee, her eyes containing dark circles wrinkling slightly. "Thanks Ianto, dunno what I'd do without you," she then proceeded to inhale the steam from her cup, "ahhh…smells heavenly!"

"At your service ma'am," Ianto bowed slightly mockingly, which must have looked comical as Gwen let out a snort giggling. Ever since Gwen had returned from her honeymoon, she looked brighter and radiated happiness, which made Ianto feel slightly envious. He wasn't alone in his envy, Ianto saw Tosh looking forlornly at Gwen a few times. He was still happy for her; out of all of them Gwen was the only one who had a stable life outside of torchwood. He hoped it stayed that way.

"HEY!" They both looked to Owen's station, "What's the hold up tea boy, where's my coffee?"

"Coming!" Ianto shouted right back.

"You don't take him seriously Ianto," Gwen looked worried as she placed a reassuring hand on his arm, "He doesn't mean that."

"Don't worry Gwen," Ianto had to give her a wry smile, "I'm used to it, and Owen's personality doesn't leave a lot to be desired."

"Hey! I heard that!" Owen's snappy tone echoed.

They both snorted at that, even Tosh who pretended to focus on her algorithms when Owen looked at her. Ianto knew Owen didn't mean any of the derogatory comments aimed at him, they were almost like an inside joke now. Not that he let Owen push him around; he also got in a few witty barbs when given the chance.

Ianto gripped the tray and moved to Tosh's desk.

"Ianto!" Gwen shouted at him, Ianto looked back raising an eyebrow, "I almost forgot, Jack wants to talk to you." She blushed slightly at that and Ianto knew she was remembering walking in on them. Ianto tried not to blush but felt the blood move to his face anyway.

"Thanks Gwen," giving her a quick nod, Ianto placed Tosh's mug on her desk. Ianto noted fondly that she didn't even notice, being too absorbed in her newest project involving some sort of alien technology. He quickly went to Owen and gave him his coffee as well and noticed Owen writing a letter to someone. When he tried to get a closer look, Owen placed some pathology notes over it and grabbed his coffee, "well move on, move on…."

Ianto just shook his head and swiftly took the stairs, Jack never usually asks for him during the day only in the evenings when the rest of the team leave to go home. It must be something important. When he pushed open the door and walked in, Jack held up a finger. He was on the phone, "Yes….yes I know!" Ianto presumed it was with someone from UNIT; Jack always had that irate tone when talking to one of them. He placed Jack's coffee on his table and was rewarded with a brilliant smile which made his heart skip. Jack's smiles always made his heart flutter. Pretending not to be affected Ianto cleared his throat and moved around the office arranging fallen objects and tying not to look at Jack.

"….I will need more information before I agree." The confident voice argued and charismatically changed the conversation around. Jack had that effect on people, he could talk his way through anything….well mostly anything. A sudden memory of Jack being berated by a drunk Tosh came to mind. That was a whole other story for another day. "Okay, call me tomorrow and let me know….yes….bye" Jack hung up.

Ianto couldn't resist and looked at Jack meeting his eyes, at the lecherous smile he received in return, Ianto knew he wasn't successful pretending. Ianto straightened; he will not cover at Jack's antics.

"So Jones, Ianto Jones…" Jack stretched the vowels in his name unnecessarily Ianto thought, "what brings you here?"

"Sir…" Ianto sounded professional he hoped, "Gwen said you wanted to see me?"

Jack laughed, "Yes…that," he stood and moved closer to Ianto, "I have some alien tech I want you to categorize," while saying this he moved closer and closer until Ianto could feel Jack's breaths on his face, "I left them at your desk." Jack's almost cyan blue eyes looked deeply into Ianto's.

Ianto conscious of the glass walls and prying eyes of his team blushed furiously and stammered out, "Ye…yes sir! I'll get right to it…" as he fled to the archives. Jack's laugh echoing knowing he had that effect on Ianto. Ianto didn't know what was wrong with him; he usually warded off Jack's flirting with ease and carried on as usual. But ever since he realised he might harbor deeper feelings than just lust for Jack , it had been difficult to push aside Jack's advances easily like before. Ianto knows he will never reveal his feelings for Jack, feeling afraid that whatever they have right now will be tarnished or just might stop if that happened. They never even had that date Jack promised a while back. Ianto didn't want to remind Jack of it, as it seemed a simple thing since they were already having sex almost every night. Jack still gave him no answers as to what happened when he left. All Ianto knew was that he found his Doctor.

Anyway he wasn't going to think about any of that now, Ianto quickly descended to the archives not meeting anyone's eyes. His office was set up underground, as he'd chosen when he first arrived at Torchwood for easy access to Lisa. But now he moved past the rooms where Lisa used to be without looking there. Jack had offered to move his desk station once the Lisa incident had been forgiven, but Ianto had refused wanting to face up to his mistakes. He regretted that now as he remembered her dying face every time he walked past. Ianto didn't want to run to Jack at every problem he had so he forced himself to toughen up, ignored those memories and found a pile of rubbish on his desk. Technology they said but it looked like something from a junkyard. There were so many bits and pieces of alien technology, some smaller than a teacup and some shaped with such irregularity that Ianto wondered how it even existed. Ianto sighed and got to work. This was his specialty after all. He wasn't just a tea boy.

Two hours passed and Ianto diligently carried on with his task. He had to measure the object, try to identify what it was from shape and appearance alone comparing it to previously found artifacts and place them in boxes with a written description of said object. Anything he couldn't identify, he took to Jack. The mound on his desk had reduced to only four objects.

On his left was a small beautifully carved chest the size of his palm. What caught his eye was that, this object was the only one that didn't seem to be singularly made of metal. Stones like rubies adorned the opening of the box. Ianto scanned the box and the scanner didn't show any results. That was strange….

He tried again; the screen was still blank.

Ianto reached for the box and pressed the lock on the opening and with a click it opened.

Ianto moved his hand away quickly and stared. In the center of the box resting on a royal purple cushion was a jewel, or so he thought. It wasn't like any jewel he'd seen before, not that he knew much about jewels as he'd only seen his sister wear illustrative necklaces. This jewel was larger than a pearl but smaller than an egg, but it was perfectly spherical. He quickly noted down his observations on the file. The blood red stone had a black symmetrical patter that made it look like an eye.

It was the most beautiful thing Ianto had ever seen.

He wanted it, he wanted to keep it, touch it…

Ianto snapped out of it and moved his already reaching hand away in horror. He knew these weren't his thoughts. This was dangerous. He had to inform Jack straight away. As he was searching for their communication set, Ianto looked at the stone. And he was lost.

He couldn't look away. The stone called to him. " _Come closer, take me….you know you want to…_ " The compulsion was almost like a purr.

Ianto was only human; he had no such defences against such power unlike Jack. It was calling him.

Before he knew it, his hand closed over the stone.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then a sharp searing pain rose in his palm, "AAHHHH!" Ianto screamed loudly and dropped the stone.

When the pain didn't disappear, he looked at his palm and the stone was still there, only it was entering his skin, burning away flesh.

Ianto shook his hand trying to dislodge the stone, he grabbed at it but nothing he tried stopped the slow descent of the stone. The pain caused tears to escape his eyes. He had to alert the team. He was compromised.

Ianto bellowed out loudly, "JACK! JACK!" He was deep underground; of course they weren't going to hear him.

Ianto tried to ignore the pain and sprinted to the main area of the hub, running up the stairs breaths coming in gasps. As he burst in the hub, everyone looked at him in horror. There was blood on his shirt, he felt light headed. Ianto collapsed.

"IANTO!" Gwen ran over to him, "Owen! Come here quickly. Tosh call Jack!"

Ianto faintly saw everyone crowd over him as if in slow motion, Owen checking his pulse. Jack's worried face as he asked him something Ianto couldn't work out. All sound came back for a moment, "….tell…what….Ianto….happened!" Nothing made sense. He raised his right hand slowly and they all spotted the blood red stone moving through his palm to the other side of his hand. A bright light emerged from the stone.

Ianto heard Jack, "EVERYONE! GET AWAY! NOW!"

As they all jumped away from him, a bright light emitted from his hand so blinding. The light grew in intensity and spread everywhere. Ianto's last thought was that he hoped everyone got away alive.

Then everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Ianto woke with a headache pounding through his head. He groaned and opened his eyes, the light blinding his vision. What did he agree to do with Jack this time? When he noted the yellow stain on the ceiling Ianto realised he was on the medical table in the autopsy bay. He still needed to clean that. That stain was the result of another one of Owen's pet project gone wrong when said yellow alien exploded spewing out viscous yellow fluid everywhere. Jack had thankfully forced Owen to clean up alongside Ianto. They were still waiting for the alien ships to arrive and declare war for killing one of theirs accidentally or not. Ianto was grateful that hadn't happened yet. Why was he here?

Everything came back to Ianto in a rush. He sat up quickly dislodging the saline attached to his wrist causing a sharp pain. Ianto lied back down again, looking at his hand there was nothing there, and Owen must have operated and removed that jewel. But there were no scars or a bandage to show that happened.

Still puzzling over it he heard a shout, "You're awake!" It was Tosh. She rushed downstairs rapidly almost tripping over in her haste to give Ianto a hug. Her shout brought the rest of the team running. Ianto had a handful of Tosh he didn't know what to do with so he returned the hug slowly, "What happened?"

"You've been asleep for almost three days! We were all so worried!" Tosh stepped back quickly as Owen brought his stethoscope and started checking his vitals. Gwen looked at him from the fence worriedly not coming down so there was some space.

"Three days?" Ianto couldn't contain his shock. No wonder his mouth stank. Gwen nodded at him, "We were just debating on bringing you to an actual hospital!" She also came downstairs giving him a hug quickly as well when Owen moved away. "Thank God you woke up!"

"Okay tea boy, show me your hand," Owen took the alien portable x-ray and pointed it at his hand. On the screen was his hand and everyone could see the spherical gem lodged inside. Pointing at the screen Owen explained, "Now here are your phalanges and just below them is the metacarpus. This alien thing had fused with your fourth and fifth bone."

Ianto felt a familiar hand land on his shoulder, which still made him jump, "Now this is interesting…" There was Jack looking intently at the sphere.

"Jack!" Ianto said exasperated, "Can we figure out how to get it out of my hand now!?"

"Finally lost the Sir," Jack grinned at him approvingly, this settled his worries slightly, "Also that is the problem, its stuck. I don't think it has plans of coming out anytime soon."

"What do you mean?" Ianto looked from jack to Owen, "Can't you cut it out?" Gwen and Tosh gave each other pensive looks. Jack nodded to Owen quickly, "Show him." Jack ushered Gwen and Tosh back upstairs where they decided to stand and watch. Ianto was even more puzzled when Owen came back wearing a rather large mask and protected gloves. Ianto became alarmed when Owen used tongs to pick up his scalpel and brought it close to his hand. "What are you doing?" Ianto snatched his hand back glaring at the scalpel dangling dangerously from the tongs.

"Just put your hand back," Owen barked at him. When Ianto looked up, Jack just nodded. Gwen seemed to be covering her face unable to look at the procedure. Tosh gave Ianto an encouraging smile.

They've all gone mad, Ianto thought. He said it out loud, "You're all mad!" When Ianto made to get up from the autopsy table. Jack quickly jumped down, "Ianto listen to me, you will not be harmed, just trust Owen." Jack looked at him, blue eyes showing sincerity. Ianto couldn't resist those blue eyes, his ears turning red Ianto nodded. Jack then patted his shoulders, "Now that's our Ianto." He then ran back to the girls giving Owen the thumbs up.

With a nervous glance at Owen, Ianto carefully placed his hand on the small table next to the autopsy bed. Now that he realised, he could tell his right hand held the tiny ball, as his hand was noticeably heavier.

Ianto closed his eyes shut as Owen brought the scalpel closer at strange angle. Just as Ianto felt the blade slice the dorsal part of his hand, he felt a rush of pinpricks rush up his arm, he couldn't describe the feeling but it felt like a rush of power. Ianto quickly opened his eyes to see Owen jump back away from the orbiting light just above the back of his hand. When Ianto brought his arm up closer, he saw the small cut Owen made with the scalpel seal up with a hiss. There were symbols rotating in the light. Whatever it was it was protecting him.

Tosh let out a gasp when she saw the symbols. "Those weren't there before!" She ran to the nearest camera and started recording the twisting, rotating symbols.

Gwen looked freaked out, "Jack! How do we stop this?" Ianto thought her experience being pregnant with an alien baby made Gwen re-think her opinion on any alien technology.

"Gwen look at his hand, for whatever reason it's healing him, protecting him!" Jack said in astonishment, "I have never seen anything like it, and I have lived a long time." Jack reached for Ianto's hand slowly. The light didn't prevent his hand from holding Ianto's wrist. With a muttered, "interesting," Jack stared hard at the symbols. "I don't recognise it," Jack ended the examination with a frown.

"Sir, what is it?" Ianto wanted to know if he had twenty-four hours left to live or something ridiculous like that. The symbols eventually faded as well as the light. "Tosh, run your translation algorithm to see if these symbols match anything on this planet." Jack

Seeing that Ianto was definitely not finding this interesting as he was, Jack explained, "That thing in your hand only reacts when someone approaches you with the intention to harm you." Jack again touched his wrist.

Owen only allowed Ianto to leave the autopsy bed to go to the bathroom and clean up. He was even given a bland cereal bar, Ianto hadn't realised how hungry he'd been until he bit into it. Tosh was still at the computers running her program, while Gwen was updating Rhys on her situation quite loudly on her phone. Jack and Owen were still with Ianto asking him primary questions to make sure his memories weren't affected.

"Ianto until we figure out what it is I want you have someone with you at all times," Jack ordered, "And I also think…" He was interrupted by the roar of the rift alarm, "Ok everyone, the rift calls." Patting Ianto's arm Jack ran towards Gwen and Tosh. "Will be right back Ianto!"

"Arg…bloody weevils," Owen groaned as he pulled off his lab coat and equipped himself with the weevil spray. When Ianto made to get up, Owen pushed him down again, "Woah, where do you think you're going?" He moved past Ianto to the stairs, "You're staying right here until we get back."

This was frustrating, "But I feel great! I can help." Ianto jumped off the autopsy table and to his credit he didn't wobble once. Whatever this jewel was doing, it was great; he'd never felt more energised.

"Oh shit!" They heard Gwen curse finally off the phone. Rhys can be overbearing at times, "There are ten weevils this time! Something is bloody wrong with this Jack."

"Something is definitely causing them to act funny, there's been more and more of them lately," Ianto heard Tosh explain to Jack.

Ianto took his chance, "See, you need my help, the four of you won't be able to cover ten weevils. If I come we can take two each." Ianto knew he was grasping at every straw but he knew he could handle it. Also he'd feel so antsy waiting for everyone to return.

Owen glanced at him dubiously, then threw his hands up knowing Ianto wouldn't listen to whatever he said, "Fine, do whatever you want, but the moment you feel something wrong you tell me! Understand?" Now it was Dr Owen Harper looking seriously at Ianto.

"Yes Doctor!" Ianto saluted him and ran up the stairs before Owen, causing him to curse loudly. Ianto had improved in the field after Jack had run off with his Doctor. He knew how to take down a weevil.

"Ianto are you sure you feel up to it?" Jack questioned him slightly away from the others, giving him a worrying look.

"I'm fine Jack," Ianto pulled on the suit blazer they'd taken off him, "Like you said, this thing is protecting me. I really don't feel tired at all." Ianto didn't meet Jack's eyes busy strapping on a gun.

"Yeah that's what I'm worried about," Before Ianto could ask Jack what he meant, Jack walked out the door, "Gwen, you're with me, the rest of you take the SUV."

Ianto hated it when Jack left him hanging. But there was no time to procrastinate over it now so Ianto placed his comms in his ear and ran to the SUV. Time to catch some weevils.


End file.
